How to get started with the right foot on #bookstagram

 

Disclaimer 1: You don’t have to be on bookstagram

Disclaimer 2: I still mostly just wing it.

But, for many of us, it’s true that where we are, is so much different than how it was when we started out. Everything, blogging, bookstagramming and booktubing is about experimentation. You’ve got to find your style, your voice, and what your own audience wants. But, man it’d have been so much better if I’d known a couple of things from the get go!

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This post is part of the 2019 Discussion Challenge! I should have done this in January but my head has been completely fried for discussion ideas.

The Book Blog Discussion Challenge is hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight I’ve been participating ever since it was created and it’s always been my best source to discover new blogs and engage in interesting conversations.

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Now, let’s get into it!

 

Follow some decent-sized hashtags

Following bookstagrammers for inspiration should be a given, but now that it’s possible to follow hashtags, get right on it!

You’ll find more bookstagrammers to follow, but also know which hashtags to use for your own posts. One mistake I made during my first year bookstagramming was to waste my hashtag space with too many big ones. Those are good for browsing, but at this point in the game, probably not very useful for our posts.

Just yesterday I updated my hashtag list for my post, trying to keep the big ones to a minimum. I’m not even using the #bookstagram one!

#bookalicious #booklife #allthebooks#bookphotography #bookobsession#bookaesthetic #yalovin #bookblogger #bookaddict #bookinsta #ireadya #bookcommunity #becauseofreading #bookdragon #culturetripbooks #bookster #mybookfeatures #literatura #acolorstorydarkroom #literaturajuvenil #librosjuveniles #escritores #amorporloslibros #bookstagramecuador #meencantaescribir #reveriesociety

 

Brighter is not always better

For quite some time I was totally convinced that the only way to make it on the platform was to turn up the brightness, saturation and exposure.

The results were… not the worse they could be but they were just not me.

Even though the process of finding what works can be frustrating, it’s also so much fun because the options are endless! There are really so many ways you can go with this depending on what you have on hand.

I was inspired by accounts like Cait’s. Her feed is the epitome of bright and colorful. But that’s who she is. It wasn’t working for me because the light in my house was too dark, and then outside most of the time it was too bright. I don’t know how it’d turn out if I tried something like that now. But in any case I find that my yellow and brown feed feels more like myself.

This isn’t true only for bright feeds. If you are thinking fall theme, or outside pics are what you need to do because some other popular accounts are doing it, then by all means try them. But please don’t stick with them if it’s just not clicking for you. Like I said, it’s about experimentation, but don’t ever feel like you need to do anything.

 

If you can, engage with others

I’ve never been a social butterfly, but at first I truly didn’t grasp how rewarding it was to engage with the bookstagram community.  Starting conversations isn’t only good for your account reach, it also gives you new friends and inspiration.

Likes are okay and everything but comments are the foundation of engagement. I’ve seen a lot of other bookstagram advice posts mention this but it’s really important: Don’t forget to read the pic’s caption if you’re going to leave a comment. I’t be awkward to make a comment that immediately gives away that you didn’t read the caption.

 

Pics don’t need to be perfectly centered

They really don’t. I wish my house was more bookstagram-worthy, because if it was I could play with all the angles for the photos! But even if you’re like me and rely on some specific backdrop to take your pics, there’s still a lot we can do to make them more interesting.

For example, the book doesn’t always have to be front and center. I hadn’t realized it the first year, but moving that book around really creates a more natural feel for the photo and helps a lot!

 

Try to be consistent, especially at first

One of the things, I really, really do regret is not being more consistent. Maybe I couldn’t post every day, but I’m pretty sure I could have established some other schedule that worked for me. It’d have allowed my account to grow faster even if I was new to the community.

I guess I just thought it didn’t matter to the 50 people or so that were following me if I stopped posting for a week. I didn’t think they’d notice. Oh, but Instagram did. It did!

It’s like blogging! Sometimes it still feels like shouting into a void, but what matter is showing up!

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How was it when you started on bookstagram? What did, or do you struggle with the most?

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